Another Peek at Mickey's Big Adventure

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Epic Mickey's getting closer to its release. Check out another look and some brand new footage.

By Craig Harris

In about a month's time, Disney will release one of the Wii's most anticipated games of 2010. Envy the Europeans, though: that territory will be getting the game a few days before Americans. Lucky ducks.

The game is done. Complete. As you read this the game code is probably whirring away in Nintendo's hidden lair getting stamped to hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – of game discs in preparation for its end-of-November release date. Disney recently made the trip over to our offices so we can get another peek at this adventure game, including the opportunity to see a boss battle in action.

Now for those who haven't been following the epicness within Disney Epic Mickey, the game – developed by Disney-owned and Warren Spector controlled studio Junction Point – is a tremendous homage not just to the famous mouse but also to much of the lost properties of the Magical World of Disney. Players, as a drippy Mickey (he was infused with the properties of the Evil Blot), explore this world and use a magic paint brush to erase or restore the world in order to progress through the levels. Each area has its own series of quests from grabbing and delivering items to simply making your way from one part of the level to another using only your jumping skills and the power of that magic brush.

To navigate between worlds, players actually leap into the silver screen and play side-scrolling platform designs based upon the art from specific Disney shorts from Mickey's history. While we've seen many of these in action already, in our demo last week Disney showed off a portal world inspired by the Mickey short "Jungle Rhythm," complete with black and white imagery and all sorts of friendly and unfriendly animals to jump on. These side-scrolling levels aren't limited to the portals, either – during the standard adventuring the game will switch back and forth between openworld 3D and strict 2D exploration.

According to Disney, there are plenty of reasons to play through Epic Mickey multiple times. First off, there's an achievement system that embraces Disney's history of pin collecting – there are 105 different pins to discover by completing the standard quests as well as the side challenges along the way. There's also branching paths to follow depending on how you complete quests or defeat end bosses. Disney showed off a boss battle where players fight against a mechanical Captain Hook – on the deck of his ship he follows a series of rails when he fights, but if the pattered attacks get a little too tough to read, you can head up into the riggings and battle with him there. And how you defeat him is remembered in-game, and – according to Disney – the different ways of defeating these enemies changes the ending of the game.

Check out some of the new direct feed videos captured during our session last week, and watch for more on Disney Epic Mickey as we lead up to the November 30th release date in the US (or if you're in Europe, 25th November, five days earlier).